Heading into what men's tennis coach Russ Crispell called "the heart" of the Mid-American Conference schedule, the Bulls looked to strengthen their position within the MAC but lost both their matches last weekend.
On Saturday, the Bulls men's tennis team headed to Muncie's Cardinal Creek Tennis Center to face a strong Ball State team that was able to easily dispose of the Bulls by winning a 7-0 decision.
"MAC tennis is on the upswing. The schools have decided to make major commitments to their programs," Crispell said of the increased level of competition amongst teams this year.
From the moment the meet began, Ball State cruised.
Ball State (14-6, 1-0 MAC) swept all three of the doubles matches during the meet. State's Joe Epkey and Matt Baccarani defeated the Bulls No. 1 pairing of sophomore Nikesh Singh Panthlia and junior Yules Hadisubroto quickly, 8-1.
Bulls (8-8, 3-3 MAC) doubles teams No. 2 and 3 followed and were both defeated by scores of 8-3.
Focusing their attention upon the singles competitions, the Bulls hoped to gain some sort of momentum that would help them edge back. They were again unable to do so and lost six straight matches without winning a single set.
Last week's MAC Player of the Week, Singh Panthlia, was defeated by Epkey in the No. 2 match, 6-1, 6-4. Matt Baccarani took the No. 1 match against junior Mike Brockman, 6-3, 6-2.
Matches three and four went to Ball State's Tony Epkey, who defeated Hadisubroto 6-1, 6-3, and Patrick Thompson, who beat freshman Octavian Stane 6-3, 6-0.
By match six, when senior Matt Kennedy fell to Danny Vidal 6-4, 6-3, the Bulls were no doubt turning their focus away from Ball State towards Sunday's meet with Toledo.
In spite of the Toledo Rockets' (13-7, 1-0 MAC) transition to outdoor courts for their face-off with Buffalo, they were still able to reign victorious with a 6-1 decision.
Crispell talked about the improved talent that Toledo pursued this year that really helped the Rockets.
"We beat them the last couple of times, then they went out and got a brand new No. 1 and went after us," Crispell said.
It was more of the same story Sunday as the Rockets won all three of the doubles matches by scores of 8-4, 8-7 (2) and 8-0. Perhaps the most dominant performance came in the final match when Toledo tandem Jared Miller and Wade Ward defeated Bulls senior Mike Zappone and senior Alejandro Galindo, 8-0.
In singles matches, Toledo managed to win all but one of the six matches. The lone bright spot came during the No. 2 match when Singh Panthlia defeated Toledo's Chris Clark 7-6 (4), 6-2.
"Those teams are loaded with talent and they beat us pretty bad," Crispell said.
Despite the losing streak, Crispell reiterated that the matches were not as lopsided as the final scores suggest.
"The score doesn't necessarily say how the matches went for the team, but sometimes that's just the way things go," Crispell said.
The Bulls will be looking to break their three-meet losing streak next week on April 10 at Niagara University (8-4, 3-2 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) in a non-conference meet. The remaining meets on the Bulls' schedule are all away, which will only make staying above .500 more difficult.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
